But
automation is a slow process and using Robots will be initially expensive,
especially if the Robotic solution took time to research and develop. Any task
that’s simple, repetitive and hazardous and involves just tracking large
amounts of information accurately and moving goods from point A to point B is
definitely up for Robotic Automation.

Enter
the Robots of Australia, which are slowly taking over the country to do their
simple, repetitive, hazardous from milking cows to Mining as stated in the
article “Robot trucks do
the jobs Australians shun”, published 18 November 2014, BBC News.

There’s
more to Robotics or Mechatronics as it’s called in Australia than their
representation in the Movie Pacific Rim. Far from just being killers of Kaiju,
in Australia, they’re becoming just as important as their role in the
end-of-the-world disaster movie!

Australia's
wild, untamed wilderness is huge, wild and dangerous. Many Australians, despite
their wild beginnings as a nation, now live in relative comfort on the
coastline. They shun the difficult and dangerous work of farming as well as
Mining, preferring to do higher level jobs in a country that is mostly untamed
desert that extends for thousands of miles.

For
that reason, Robots are slowly taking over farming jobs across Australia. Prof Sukkarieh's has developed a giant Solar
powered Robot called Ladybird that uses Image recognition to detect weeds and
remove them. This does duty along with the Mantis, which is really a Robot that
detects when trees are ready to bear fruit.

Robots
such as these were once oddities and curios are now seriously being considered
for work on farm where there is a shortage of local labour which is being
temporarily augmented with labour from the East Indian Islands and labourers
from Thailand and mainland China.

But
as it’s expensive and dangerous to work on these remote farms, the high cost of
paying such labour means Robots, which can work for 24/7 at very low labour
costs and never get tired, complain except when they need maintenance, are
slowly looking to be the perfect fit for Australia's Labour Shortage.

Robots
that milk Cows aren't such a novel concept, but it's still amazing to watch
cost saunter up and be milked on their own. But what about Mining in Australia?
Can the process of extracting ore be done by Robots that so far look very
fragile and frail?

Robots in Mining – Robots
and Drones needed along with Drone Pilots,
Supervisors and Engineers

In
the initial stages, there will be need for Remote operators, as clearly these Robots
can't work unsupervised. Australians will still working in such large mines
owned by the many mining giants such as Rio Tinto...they just won't be lower
level workers, says Head of Innovation at mining at Rio Tinto John McGagh.

This
means less manual labour and more Remote Operator of Trucks, Drilling
Equiptment and Ore Crushing equiptment. It
also translates to increased saving in use of chemicals in ore extraction and
most importantly Energy. Though it may be slivers of percentages saved in
expenditure, it translates to billions of dollars over long timescales.
Especially in Energy Usage, which Head of innovation at mining at Rio Tinto
John McGagh claims already gobbles up 5% of the world’s Energy Production for
Mining Activities just to satisfy China!

Australia
may thus already be training their children and University Graduates with the
requisite skills to become Remote Operators of Robots and Drones, which are
technically a type of Robot. New skills are needed, such as mechatronics, an
amalgam of the skills of a Mechanical Engineer and Electronics Engineer skilled
in the Maintenance of Robots.

This
is already occurring from a very young age in Australia, with the Brisbane's
School of the Future Mechatronics teacher Megan Hastie teaching children the
Computer Programming skills necessary to pilot Robots remotely even as many of
her students are themselves remotely taught.

But unlike in the US of A, where many are
worried about Robots taking away their jobs, like any worker new on the Job, these
Robots will need supervisors. Australia is rapidly embracing this reality of Robots
doing that’s simple, repetitive and hazardous jobs for which no cheaper labour
solution exists.

Robots,
until they become AI (Artificially Intelligent), will need Australian Remote
Operator, Maintenance Engineers and Drone Pilots to guide their work. Not to
mention make sure that they don’t strike when they take their mandatory five
(5) minute maintenance break!

“So,
these workshops are to keep them interested and to expose them to new
techniques in coding and hopefully, over time, they can develop clubs and
ultimately to get more young ladies coding”

Minister of State in
the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Julian Robinson
explaining the Girls who Code Workshops held on Saturday November 15th
and Saturday November 22nd 2014

Girls
who Code is on the move with more workshops being held and coming in the future!

The Musson Foundation, at the prompting of
JAMPRO (Jamaica Trade and Invest), has now come on board to teach twenty five
(25) girls from ten (10) High schools in the Corporate area level Coding i.e. how
to write computer programs as stated in the article “Gov’t Moves to
Increase Girl Coders”, published November 25, 2014 By O. Rodger Hutchinson,
The Jamaica Information Service.

During
the workshop, a continuation of the Jamaican Girls Coding 2014 Summer Camp, the
“young ladies” as State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy
and Mining Julian Robinson calls them are being taught the following Coding
Skills:

The
hope is that by exposing females to computer programming, they'll realize that
careers are possible in the soon-to-start ICT (Information Computer Technology)
Sector and start programming clubs called Girls Who Code Clubs.

Support
for this initiative was expressed best by Musson Foundation Deputy Chairman,
Melanie Subratie, quote: “When these girls are in charge of their own coding
clubs, we are hoping that these 10… will mushroom into 250 girls coding. So
we’re looking forward to competitions, curricula, and for it to last long and
be successful in the schools that it rolls out into. If can get these girls and
they set up coding clubs in their schools, we will sponsor as many as we can,
and in five years time, can you imagine the multiplier effect!”

Females are easier to train than males. They
also tend to work better in groups on projects that have a structure, being as
they are mainly Read/Write and Auditory learners i.e. learning by reading,
writing and listening.

Rarely
are females Kinesthetic or Visual, as on the MICO University College I’m yet to see
any female taking an interest in doing the Pure Sciences as well as Electrical
and Mechanical Engineering Courses.

Hopefully,
being exposed to computer programming at this age will predispose them to
choosing Computer Programming, Information Technology and possibly Networking
as career options in the future. So says Musson Foundation Deputy Chairman,
Melanie Subratie, quote: “The Government has really put Jamaica at the
forefront of technology in education with this project, with the Tablets in
Schools project, and Start­Up Jamaica. Jamaicans are incredibly creative and
this can only help the country’s development”.

Developing
a natural love for programming is also easier among females, being as they are
very control-oriented in their view of their environment i.e. they like the idea
that they can program thing to do what they want and how they want it. So says
Founder of Halls of Learning, Marvin Hall, quote: “The level where they can now
write a programme or develop an application that does something, that’s the
level we want to get them to. Coding is what gives you command over the
computer”.

But
the TIS Project might spark their interest in designing content for Tablets in
the future, now that they're getting the exposure to Tablets and they possess
these new found programming skills:

1.Animation

2.Robotics

3.Smartphone App Design

4.Video Game Design

5.Website Programming Languages

Of
particular interest to females are the field of Animation, Video Game Design
and Robotics.

All
three are similar, in that Coding is required to instruct the software on how
to manipulate the objects, be they sequential images (Animation), characters in
a game based on feedback from the player (Video Game) or response to external
stimuli through its various Sensors (Robotics).

These
fields hold the potential for fairly large levels of remuneration, often as
high as JA$100,000 per month and the potential for travel abroad. Females make excellent
ambassadors for Jamaica's ICT Sector and gradually by formation of the Girls
who Code clubs, it'll encourage their adoption of Coding as a career thereby
encouraging other females to enter a field that gives them control over their environment,
be it virtual or real.

This
year, the State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and
Mining Julian Robinson will select an eCard from among those being made by the
girls to be sent out electronically as part of the Ministry's traditional. It's
the ultimate expression of faith in the project, to quote the State Minister in
the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Julian Robinson: “We will brand it as a ‘Girls who Code’ project”.

Already
it seems to be taking rot with the females who’ve participated in the program.
Grade seven student at Dunoon Park Technical High school, Aleeka Sherrington
states that they've already started a Girls Who Code club at her high school,
quote: “You can produce your own games and create your own movie. We have
already formed a club at my school and we are now ready to start going through
all the processes".

Her
elder sister Nakeisha Rhoden, was so desirous to enter the program that she
begged to join. She's evidence that females like the idea of manipulating and
controlling their environment, quote: “The whole programme is very interesting
as it shows you how to develop from scratch, movies, cards and other things.
Without this programme an object on the computer can’t move unless you give it
a command, it is so precise”.

But
the real diamond in the rough, a grade seven student at the Merle Grove High
School, Diamond Brown, has already become an evangelist for the Girls Who Code
Project, already teaching her immediate family and may potential be their first
President for the Club, quote: “It makes you learn how to build your own games
and do animation and ecards. When I go back to school, I will teach my friends
how to build their own games and do animation. I’ve already started to teach my
family, my cousins in 8th and 7th grade and they like it”

I
certainly like the sound of that. Hopefully too, there may also be a Girls Who
Code Club being formed at the MICO
University College to teach girls how to code, taking advantage of the
e-Learning Lab that is already on Campus.

Apple
is getting ready to launch the Apple Watch come the First Quarter of 2015,
which admittedly I've spoken little about on my blog.

That's
because it doesn't exist officially, making conversations about its specs
purely speculative, other than the fact that it'll be using Apple Pay, Apple's
NFC (Near Field Communication) powered Mobile Money Platform as described in
the article “Apple
takes NFC Mainstream on iPhone 6: Apple Watch with Apple Pay”, published
September 9, 2014 11:02 AM PDT, by Marguerite Reardon and Shara Tibken, CNET News.

So
when it was recently announced that Apple was allowing US and UK residents to
pay for Apple products using their PayPal
accounts as reported in the article “Apple
Store now lets you buy items via PayPal”, published December 12, 2014 8:01
AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News, I was a
bit take aback.

After
all, potentially, PayPal is a competitor
in the same Mobile Money space, as their PayPal
App can utilize the NFC chips on most Google Android smartphones and make them
able to pay for goods and services. Apple is just merely better at marketing
the concept.

Paypal attacks Apple
Pay – Apple and Paypal kiss and make up as Fappening haunting Apple

Paypal
didn’t like this and so took a stab at Apple Pay in an ad in the Monday
September 15th 2014 publication of the San Francisco Chronicle, stating that
they represented the American People by protecting their money better than how
Apple Pay as reported in the article “Apple
Pay is as safe as your selfies, says PayPal ad”, published September 15,
2014 12:48 PM PDT by Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News.

However,
this seems to be more of a business relationship than competition on the Mobile
Money front. Granted this is nothing new as PayPal
has always been an option to purchase Apple iTunes and App Store content along
with your Credit or prepaid Debit Card. It was the purchase of physics goods
i.e. Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, etc, that were Credit Card only....until now.

So
will PayPal in the future become a payment
option to a Credit or Prepaid Debit Card as a source of funds for Apple Pay on
your Apple Watch, especially as it is more secure? The First Quarter of 2015 in
the Year of the Sheep may be when the Apple Watch goes live and all speculation
is laid to rest.

And
nowhere is that excitement more felt than among Airplane pilots, who
potentially can make as much as US$50 per hour or US$100,000 per year as Drone
pilots as reported in the article “Drone pilot wanted: Starting
salary $100,000”, published November 25, 2014: 11:32 AM ET By Ben Rooney, CNN Money.

So
says Director of the Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems at the University of
North Dakota, Al Palmer, whose university is now certifying Graduates for this burgeoning
field with a Degree in operating and maintaining UAV (Unmanned Aircraft
Vehicle) Systems.

Especially
if Drones are to work in the cities to deliver packages to people living in
apartments or who may be travelling. No surprise here; if US Army still needs
pilots to fly Drones, then it stands to reason that pilots will be needed for
commercial Drones as well.

FAA releases Commercial
Drones - 100,000 Drone Pilot jobs for the next five years

The
FAA is set to make regulations that will allow certain light-weight Drones to
make commercial flights up to 400 feet. Most likely, these Drones will be flown
by certified pilots or Registered Drone Operators working with large companies
such as Amazon, Google and even Facebook.

After
all, if during the annual UAV Challenge: Outback Rescue for
the past seven (7) years a semi-autonomous Drone can't find Stranded Joe to
bring him a bottle of water in the Australian outback of
Kingaroy, north­east Australia as stated in the article “Can Drones get water to
stranded”, published 26 November 2014 Last updated at 09:00 GMT, BBC News, then clearly Drones will need pilots.

If
you’re one of those persons who believe that your shit is worth its weight
gold, you may be on to something.

GENeco, a sewage
processing plant company, has come up with an innovative way to process
leftover food and sewage. They're decided to see in a one of a kind experiment
to power a bus called the GENeco Bio-Bus
using Bio-Methane as described in the article “This bus runs on human
poop”, published November 24, 2014: 10:44 AM ET by Ivana Kottasova, CNN Money.

GENeco Bio-Bus is
a 40-seater A4 Bus, no bigger than a typical JUTC Bus here in Jamaica, if it
were to carry only seated passengers as noted in the article “All
aboard the poop bus, now farting around the UK”, published 21 November 2014
6:30 pm GMT by Anthony Domanico, CNET News. GENeco Bio-Bus
will ply the route between the Bristol airport and the historic town of Bath, a
distance of 20km (12.4m).

They’ll
potentially be carrying as many as 10,000 passengers per annum along this well
trafficked route, as going to the Bristol Airport is a regular activity. Makes
sense too, as Bio-Methane from the people of Bath is already being used to heat
the homes of the very same residents.

1.299.34
km (186 miles) is the distance the GENeco Bio-Bus can
travel on a full tank of Bio-Methane

2.59.55
miles (37 km) is the distance one persons annual waste i.e. organic material,
faeces and urine can allow the bus to travel

Therefore
according to these figures, to fill the tank of a GENeco Bio-Bus
requires the annual waste of five (5) persons. This might sound inefficient,
but remember that the annual waste of a UK resident will be stored in liquid
form in huge Processing tanks at GENeco Sewage processing
plant; potentially they could have hundreds of years worth of British Human
waste stored.

And
that's just human waste; cows and farm animals as well as organic material from
plants i.e. grass cutting from lawns, gardens, etc and dead animals, can be
harnessed and bio-digested into methane and carbon dioxide. So this is
beginning to look more like say 50% of UK's heating needs, something the Gas
companies are sure to like or dislike, depending on how they see the efficiency
gains of Bio-Methane as well as keeping their Gas supplies domestic, so to
speak.

Clearly
this is a proof-of-concept that has huge potential, even though the News
reporting doesn’t appear to take it quite so seriously.

GENeco Bio-Bus and
Bio-Methane - Suitable replacement for LPG that can power Combustion Engines

The
GENeco Bio-Bus'
fuel, Bio-Methane Gas, is generated through the treatment of sewage. The bus'
tanks are modified to a design similar to those used by vehicles that run on
LPG as described in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Auto
LPG as a Motor Vehicle Fuel”.

Because Bio-Methane is a Gas, there is no need
for a Fuel Filter or a Fuel Heater, albeit the fuel line will have an Air
Filter instead as well as a pressure regulator for the detection of leaks. And
no, the Bio-Methane doesn’t smell like what it was made of, that being fecal
material and rotting organic matter, i.e. vegetables, meat, etc. Rather, it'll
have a scent added to it similar to LPG Gasoline tanks that Jamaicans currently
uses as to enable the detection of leaks, should it happen to leak of course.

As
my article had pointed out, using LPG is more efficient. Using Bio-Methane
appears to have similar benefits for the vehicle's engine. Already, here in
Jamaica, we've made extensive usage of our biofuel, though not human waste but
organic waste.

GENeco Bio-Bus
shows the potential of human shit an organic food waste. But we here in Jamaica
can process virtually any organic waste into fuel as we generate tons of
garbage daily, fuelling both our JUTC buses, motor vehicles as well as
producing Cooking Gas.